Obstetric cholestasis

[Ele38]

Hi I am 23 weeks pregnant and have begun very itchy over last couple of weeks, I have googled it mentioned obstetric cholestasis now I am freaking out a bit as it mentioned harmful to baby and risk of stillbirth. Has anyone had it and can reassure me a bit and how do they test for it as it mentioned them doing a physical exam as well as blood tests I just wondered what kind of exam they do. Any response appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Ele38,

Congrats on your pregnancy. I have a son who will be 10 months this month and I had OC during my pregnancy. I kept mentioning itching to the midwives at each appointment but they will not do the test unless your hands and feet start to itch. I was diagnosed with OC around this time last year so around 2.5 months before due date. I didn’t have any internal exam, they just did a blood test which confirmed that I had OC. After this I was discharged from midwifery care into consultant care and had to have a weekly blood test to monitor the ALT (I think that’s what it’s called) and had to have twice weekly monitoring of baby heart beat / movement. Hopefully you won’t have it but yes there is an increased risk of still birth but you just need to make sure your baby is doing plenty of movement and if in any doubt go straight to triage. They will induce you if you have OC or any other pregnancy related condition my son was born at 38+5. They will prescribe an aqueous cream (it’s rubbish - it stings and doesn’t ease the itching) and they will give ursodeoxycholic acid. A word of warning which they did not tell me is that ursodeoxycholic tablet has not had full testing in pregnancy and they assume you consent to this but I wasn’t given full information on this.

Not sure if you read this but here’s the nhs link for OC:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/itching-obstetric-cholestasis-pregnant/

In the long and short it’s uncomfortable and tiring as you itch yourself crazy. But with the right monitoring your baby should be healthy and happy.

All the best!